Santorum formally endorses Romney

posted at 8:41 am on May 8, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Last night, the GOP took another step towards unifying behind its presumptive nominee for President, Mitt Romney. Rick Santorum, who emerged late in the cycle to become Romney’s toughest competitor, formally endorsed him as the nominee in an e-mail sent out to supporters:

Rick Santorum has officially endorsed Mitt Romney, and notified his supporters in an email sent Monday night.

In the email, the former presidential candidate cited his Friday meeting with Romney in his hometown of Pittsburgh as a reason he finally got behind the presumptive GOP nominee.

“On Friday, Governor Romney came to Pittsburgh for an over-hour long one-on-one meeting,” Santorum said in the email. “The conversation was candid, collegial and focused on the issues that you helped me give voice to during our campaign; because I believe they are essential ingredients to not only winning this fall, but turning our country around.” …

Santorum said that in the meeting he “felt a deep responsibility to assess Governor Romney’s commitment to addressing the issues most important to conservatives, as well his commitment to ensuring our appropriate representation in a Romney administration.’

He said he was “impressed” with the presumptive GOP nominee’s “deep understanding of this connection and his commitment to economic policies that preserve and strengthen families.”

Santorum is scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this evening, and ABC’s Shushannah Walshe says that Santorum was expected to make a commitment at that time. Santorum apparently decided to announce the endorsement as soon as he made the decision. That may take a little of the drama out of tonight’s appearance, but it also may draw more interest as people tune in to hear Santorum’s explanation of the endorsement. Leno will no doubt tease Santorum about his campaign attacks on Romney as the worst Republican to put up against Obama in the fall, and Santorum’s responses will make some news, undoubtedly.

What does this mean for the race? First, the ad cutters at Team Obama will be busy this week with a new project, but that was going to happen anyway. Romney should solidify his support among the social-conservative base of the party, and perhaps even get a little more enthusiasm from it. It sounds as if Santorum could become a surrogate for Romney among the constituencies where Santorum’s message resonated, which would help Romney most in the Rust Belt states where the presidency could be won or lost. The relative rapidity of the endorsement — last Friday was only their first meeting since Santorum’s withdrawal — puts an end to stories of Republican disunity far ahead of the convention.

It’s hardly a game changer, but it resolves a few open issues for Team Romney well ahead of schedule, and that is important for both fundraising and focus.

Breaking on Hot Air

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Dismissing these concerns held by millions of voting Americans about our new standard bearer in the most important election in the last 60 years as “whining” is exceedingly lazy, ignorant and foolish on your part.

You don’t seem to want to talk about any of this, just to call me names based on nothing over and over again.

Eventually I’d like to see Newt and Santorum on stage and side-by-side with Mitt in a strong show of unity. We need to make this ALL about Obama’s disastrous record and the need to replace him in November. bluegill on May 8, 2012 at 8:51 AM

Wow. I’ve found something about which I can agree with you. You could have stopped here, though. Just sayin’.

Brian, I really believe that most of this is just hatred toward conservatives.

Team Romney and his surrogates just hate conservative tea party patriots. It’s really that simple.

Keep digging my friend!

jjnco73 on May 8, 2012 at 11:56 AM

And what’s laughable is how the democrats are trying to paint Romney as some kind of die-hard conservative. He’s not a conservative, never was, and never will be! Just let him run as what he is…whatever that is on whatever day… and he’ll be fine…

..further bulletins as BellicoseEd awakens from crack coma in 5..4..3..2..

The War Planner on May 8, 2012 at 11:43 AM

The score matches exactly Mitt’s best showing set back on April 24th. This is the third time in this poll that Mitt has lead Obama by 5 ppts, his best lead over the president. Obama, by contrast, has never led Romney in this poll by more than three. He led by three only once. That was on May 1st at the height of his Osama Ben Laden bounce. That bounce is all dissipated now.

Santorum is a joke. The guy cared more about getting Lindsay Lohan’s picture and laughing at Obama’s jokes the other night. If this is such a critical election, why did he wait? Does anyone believe he had a “conversation” with Romney and is now convinced? Please. He is a tool. Nothing more than a few Obama campaign ads.

The score matches exactly Mitt’s best showing set back on April 24th. This is the third time in this poll that Mitt has lead Obama

by 5 ppts, his best lead over the president. Obama, by contrast, has never led Romney in this poll by more than three. He led by three only once. That was on May 1st at the height of his Osama Ben Laden bounce. That bounce is all dissipated now.

BellicoseEd hardest hit.

Gunlock Bill on May 8, 2012 at 12:26 PM

..he’s strangely silent on this matter, Gunlock. Oh, I know! He’s off scouring the back pages of Gallup, PPP, QP, and Raz looking for old polls he can screen scrape and barf all over this thread.

His (and other’s) mantra about polls not meaning anything at this juncture is probably true, but it is significant that Romney — after one of the longer and more vicious series of primaries and debates with three contentious candidates — can be within leading or within the MOE versus a SCOAMF POTUS who rarely polls above 50%.

3/4 of Paul supporters will stick with him in the general. Of the remaining 3% (of the 13%), I bet they go for Romney 4-to-1. That’s good for an extra point on Mitt’s lead – to give us Romney 46%, 0bama 40%.

I’ll tell you what would cause a national meltdown as an October surprise:

Arpaio’s crew’s digging up the records at Occidental showing he got a foreign-student scholarship and signed a paper saying he was a foreigner, and the Occidental record keepers signing sworn statements that the papers are legit.

As well, a copy of Soetoro’s transcripts showing that his core curriculum consisted of:

Communism 101: Why it’s right for America.
African studies 102: Why white men are devils
Socialism 200: Their money is OUR money
Communications 340: The genius of Goebbels
Russian studies 400: Stalin as a model for the future
Political Science 520: The Mussolini model- PRACTICUM
Psychology 410: How to fool people
Religious Studies 550: The Messianic model in politics
American History 666: Amerikkka sux

And this “rapidity of the endorsement” business is just laughable. He dropped out of the race a month ago. That’s when the clock starts ticking. Not when they have their first meeting.

rogaineguy on May 8, 2012 at 10:11 AM

Historically, the way this works is the guy who WINS approaches his opponents when they drop out. Romney failed to do this. In this election, the attacks against his opponents were so personal and burned so many bridges, as the winner, it was/is totally up to him to start rebuilding those bridges.

His supporters? Obviously, they’re still under the dilerious delusion that calling people names and belittling and demeaning other Republicans is the best way evah to get the vote out. I’d still be afraid to meet some of these folks in a dark alley.

This is an important conservative endorsement, and, it is one of the few endorsements, thus far, that actually lends credibility to Romney. HOWEVER – Sarah Palin’s endorsement is still the most important and valuable that any Republican can get – IF (BIG IF) Romney can convince Palin to endorse him, and not just support him as the nominee, then he will really have achieved something. Whether or not Romney can do anything to convince Sarah to endorse him is unclear, but if he wants to grow enthusiasm and win REALLY BIG, he better start talking to her. Palin’s endorsement is solid gold.